EBONY: [THE WEEKLY READ] Dear Justine Sacco Saviors

Michael ArceneauxDecember 26, 2013

For some White people, it seems like that even if one makes a terrible mistake, the universe gives them a pass to say, “I’m rubber, you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you!” It’s almost like their superpower or magic trick, ready to be unleashed whenever there is danger of being rightly held accountable for their actions. But why can’t some people just be wrong, especially when they’re dead wrong?

An example would be when you think it’s fine to quip to the world, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” There are plenty of lessons to be learned in the story of fired IAC PR director Justine Sacco, but many of her peers in mainstream media are doing their damndest to make certain that the narrative focuses more on those who laughed at Justine Sacco, as opposed to the action that allowed her to become such an easy target.

In “Sympathy For Sacco,”The Nation’s Michelle Goldberg does quite the dance with hyperbole and melodramatics. Goldberg argues, “She didn’t deserve to be treated like a monster on par with Ariel Castro.” She also warns, “Almost any of us could be vulnerable to a crowd-sourced inquisition.” To compare the public shaming of a PR person willfully choosing to prove how bad at public relations she is to that of a man who kidnapped and abused three young women for years is just…

Ditto for the declaration: “The next Justine Sacco may be someone who tweets something stupid about the military, or Israel, or motherhood and apple pie. Once we decide it’s OK to let a mob loose on anyone who’s offended us, the only people who are safe are those who never say anything at all.”

I imagine those folks who know better than to tweet racist things or anything else that can be deemed culturally insensitive might be relatively “safe,” too. Or at the very least, those who know better than to tweet incendiary language with their government names and job titles made visible.

Then there’s Nick Bilton, who also sings another sad love song for Sacco in the New York Times, where he laments, “Ms. Sacco was tried and judged guilty in a public square of millions and soon attacked in a way that seemed worse than her original statement.” To be fair, those who threatened Sacco with sexual assault and other sick acts of violence are despicable, but that has been a long ugly aspect of Internet culture. I, too, find it interesting that it took this incident for certain people to recognize this seediness and bemoan it publicly.

Bilton adds, “Maybe that need to impress, to find validation through the people that follow us online, was what led to Ms. Sacco’s inappropriate tweet, and also gave the people who attacked her the justification for their own vitriolic behavior.”

He isn’t the only one trying to rationalize (and subsequently scapegoat) Sacco’s tasteless joke.

Writing at Forbes, Jeff Bercovici, took issue with Sacco’s joke being deemed racist, noting, “I interpreted it as a self-deprecating joke about White guilt and Western privilege — about the sheepish feeling of being physically close to tragedy while remaining safe in an economic and cultural bubble. Others have told me they read it much the same way, even without knowing the author. ‘I think she was more mocking the aloofness white people can have on this issue, not celebrating that aloofness,’ says one friend.”